“This is Eternal Displacement”: Israeli Onslaught on Gaza City Forcing Thousands to Flee With Nowhere to Go
“No one is spared—no old person, no child, no woman. No human being is spared.”
GAZA CITY—Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and quadcopters are pushing deeper into Gaza City, destroying entire neighborhoods and leaving people with nowhere to go. The escalating assault comes amid a widening famine, with Palestinians starving to death every day. Airstrikes continue to pound civilians in central and southern Gaza. It has been one of the deadliest periods for journalists since Israel’s assault began, with at least 11 journalists killed in two bombardments just two weeks apart.
Palestinians are describing the assault by the Israeli military to seize and ethnically cleanse Gaza City—Gaza’s largest city, where up to a million people are currently seeking shelter—as the end game.
On Tuesday, residents in al-Saftawi neighborhood, just north of Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City, were forced to flee in the thousands as Israel’s ground assault bore down, with tanks and warplanes leveling entire blocks.
“For about a week now, it’s been constant bombing, shelling, and destruction,” Ramy, a resident being displaced from al-Saftawi, told Drop Site on Tuesday. “Today we were shocked when the army raided our area and bombed it. We were terrified, really terrified. A quadcopter came and they told us: ‘You have six hours to evacuate.’”
As he spoke, people scrambled to pile thin mattresses and scant belongings onto the few cars, motorized rickshaws, and donkey carts in the area. Most streamed out on foot, carrying nothing more than plastic bags. Over 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced since the beginning of the war, most of them multiple times.
“We’re leaving, but we don’t know where to go. We want to leave, but to where? There is no safe place in Gaza. Even going south is difficult, and circumstances are hard. To go from the north to the south—you have no money, no transportation. It’s extremely difficult, disastrous. There is no healthcare, no food, no aid, no tents, no anything,” Ramy said. “This is eternal displacement. Not just forced—eternal. What we’re seeing is that it’s eternal. Our children are getting sick, our women are getting sick, people are dying from hunger, and in the end we’re being displaced.”
Scenes of Palestinians being forcibly displaced in Al-Saftawi neighborhood and along the coastal road in Gaza City. August 26, 2025 (Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah).
The clearing out of Palestinians from al-Saftawi comes as Israel focuses heavy bombardment and shelling on three of Gaza City’s eastern areas—Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Sabra.
Between August 14, when Israel announced its offensive on Gaza City, and August 25, more than 36,200 Palestinians have been displaced, including over 11,600 from the north to the south, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The majority of people displaced came from neighborhoods in Gaza City, with more than two thirds going to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and nearly a third to Khan Younis.
“The situation we’re living in is tragic, extremely tragic. No one is spared—no old person, no child, no woman. No human being is spared,” a man displaced from Jabalia Al-Nazla, told Drop Site. “What’s happening now is forced displacement—non-voluntary.”
Church leaders in Gaza City on Wednesday announced they would not leave the city. “Trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence,” they said. The joint statement by the Greek Orthodox and Latin Patriarchates of Jerusalem said they “have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds.”
Israel has only doubled down on its plans to seize Gaza City with an Israeli military spokesperson insisting on Wednesday that "evacuating Gaza City is inevitable” and publishing a new map showing areas in central and southern Gaza that he claimed were empty for Palestinians to displace to “before the next phase of the war.”
“It’s been ten days now, and every day the Israelis keep pressing. Jabalia town and Jabalia Al-Nazla have been completely destroyed,” Mohammed Abu Al-Saeed told Drop Site. “There’s no house left, no stone, no street, nothing. Just a while ago, we were shocked when the tank and bulldozer reached Saftawi roundabout and started operating. When people saw that scene, they fled in a massive and terrifying way.” He added, “Even if we wanted to evacuate, we wouldn’t know where to go. There is absolutely no safe place in the Gaza Strip…Young people are dying in the streets. Women are dying in the streets. We’ve become a displaced people.”
For many families, they simply cannot or will not displace to the south. With massive fuel shortages, the cost of getting a car from the north to the south can top 2,000 shekels (about $600) and many are unable to make the arduous journey to areas in central and southern Gaza that are nevertheless repeatedly attacked by Israel. As Palestinians in Gaza City are driven further west toward the sea by the incoming Israeli assault, the city’s coastline has been transformed into a mass tent encampment.
A mass tent encampment on the coastline of Gaza City. August 26, 2025. (Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah)
“We simply can’t go to the south, and the reason is clear: lack of money. We don’t have the basics of life necessary to move to the south. We don’t have access to jeeps or cars to transport us or our belongings. Also, there isn’t enough food,” Hamed Hleiwa, a Palestinian man from Gaza City, told Drop Site, near the tent where he was living with his children. “The bigger issue is that the south, where Israel tells us to go—specifically Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis—there’s no space there. There are no available areas. It’s already overcrowded. It’s packed with people from Rafah, packed with people from Khan Younis, and packed with people from the north who haven’t returned to northern Gaza yet.”
“Displacement requires essentials: food, money and transportation. So even if I’m going to die here, I won’t leave,” Hleiwa said in reference to Gaza City. “I would leave, but I can’t.”
Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report
 | A guest post by
|
This is despicable!
Thank you Abdel, God bless you and all the innocent Palestinians suffering from this horrific US/Israeli genocide. Besides lobbying our criminal Zionist government to stop this massacre, what can we as individuals do? Is there a fundraiser to help the displaced? 💔